INDIA BIBLE COLLEGE AND SEMINARY

An Assignment on

Jesus as Fulfiller

Submitted by: Christopher Raj Submitted to: Dr. Shaibu Abraham

Subject: Introduction to Christian Theologies in India Class: B. D III

Swami Abhishiktananda (1910-1973)

His original name was Henri Le Saux. He was a Bebedictine monk from France, came to India in1947
and lived with Jules Monchanin at Shantivanam. He met Ramana Maharshi at Tiruvannamalai, Tamil
Nadu, ie, called as the Arunachala. He said that at the cave of Arunachala he was awakened to the
mystery of non-duality within the cave of his own heart. His focus was on a deep contemplating
experience and said that India itself is a land of contemplation. And it is linked with his Advaitic
awareness of the divine mystery. For him theology comes from what is inner-most in the soul, not
from the mind alone. A living synthesis-rather an osmosis-will results only from the achievement and
completion in Christ of the Hindu Vedantic spiritual experience within the heart of the elect.

The Concept of Fulfilment Theology

Once the word theology, its meaning and its themes are explained further we are to go into the detail
about the fulfilment of the theology, how benefited to the humanity something that we have seen that
theology is the discourse of doctrine about God. Various cultures and traditions; and God is the God
Father of all of them. His salvific plan was for every one of the world and for the same purpose SON
OF God became son of man. The word became flesh to come into this world and so everything was to
be fulfilled and accomplished.

The NT on the “Theology of Fulfilment” in Jesus Christ

St. Paul explains the will of God, the father about the humanity his beloved son, Jesus Christ and the
salvific plan of the father is being continued in the whole till the whole humanity with the church
accepts God as their common father and the lord of all creation. This fulfilment is desired by the
father from the foundation of the world when the state of grace was lost by the sin of the humans. In
the fullness of time, the father sent his beloved son to save what was lost. Understanding that Jesus
was having power of God and knowing that he is the son of God, all the crowed sought to touch him,
for power came forth from him and healed them all. Paul says that He is the image of the invisible
God, the first born of all creation for in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible whether thrones or dominions and principalities. For in him all the fullness of God was
pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his cross (Col. 1:15-20). In the fullness of time, Jesus accepted from his
Father the universal power and fullness. So all are his own and subjected to him in the universal
redemption.

Fulfilment

Abhishiktananda lovingly examines each detail in Hindu belief to see how it can be fulfilled in the
Christian experience. He holds that it is the Christian experience which brings the advait in experience
to its full fruition. He believes that “our role is to help the holy seed which has been sown by the
Spirit in the heart and traditions of India to Germinate”. Hinduism tends of its very nature towards
Christianity as its eschatological fulfilment. He says, the Upanishads will find their full and definitive
meaning in Christ the Lord and the Pleroma. For him, “all that was said in the Upanishads was in
reality said of Christ”. He writes, ‘the Bible appears to the Christian in his faith as the crown and
completion of the Upanishads’. Fulfilment in this context means ‘transposition and sublimation.
Fulfilment is not a continuous glide towards Christ; there is here a break in continuity, and grace
alone enables a man to reach ‘the other bank’.Abhishiktananda regards fulfilment as a matter of deep
spiritual experience, rather than as a theological exercise. And so he sees the deepest and best Hindu
experience as being fulfilled and completed in Christ: ‘a living synthesis rather than osmosis will
result only from the achievement and completion in Christ of the Hindu Vedantic spiritual experience,
within the heart of the elect.’

Jesus as Fulfiller

J.N. Farquhar (1861-1929) theology was based on the fulfilment Theory. Hinduism has gleams of
light in it and a Hindu is right in following it until the higher light reaches them. In Hinduism there is
an aspiration which would be considered as preparation for Christ, and every important Christian truth
is part of Hinduism. He uses the fulfilment idea in evolutionary sense and sees the process of
fulfilment as a radical displacement of Hinduism by Christianity. He utilized the fulfilment theory to
Hinduism and presented his interpretation regarding the relationship between Christianity and
Hinduism.

Farquhar argues that Christianity or rather Christ is the crown of Hinduism. He painted this notion
creatively in his book ‘The crown of Hinduism’. Christ provides the fulfilment of each highest
aspiration and aims of Hinduism. Every true motive which is in Hinduism has found expression in
unclean, debasing, or unworthy practices finds in Him fullest exercise in work for the downtrodden,
the ignorant, the sick, and the sinful. In Him is focused every ray of light that shines in Hinduism.
Christ is breathing life into the Hindu people. Unlike other missionaries he never rejected Hinduism
as evil but he considered it in line with fulfilment. The Christianity that he talks of is not Christianity
as it is practiced by Christians but Christianity as it springs from Christ himself. In fact, he passes for
Christ to Christianity and back as if they were identical.

Fulfilment in Christ

The study of these details of the advaitic experience with epoche makes Swami Abhishiktananda
come to his concept of fulfilment. He believes that God has planted the seeds of true faith in Hindu
hearts. So it is the task of the Christian Mission to help the holy seed germinate, since “in the designs
of God Hinduism tends of its very nature towards Christianity as its eschatological fulfilment”. This
means that even the Hindu Upanishads will find their fulfilment in the Bible. That is, for Swami
Abhishiktananda fulfilment is a matter of a deep spiritual experience rather than a theological
exercise. Following Upadhyaya he also accepts that the meaning of Brahman is really understood only
as Saccidananda and only when Saccidananda is experienced as the Christian Trinity. When, in the
cave of the heart, Christians and Hindus meet, first they experience the ultimate non-duality of the
Christians and secondly “the experience of divine sonship in the unity of the Spirit”. The first will
inevitably pass on into the second. And that is how the first is fulfilled in the second. He dwells on
what he calls “the cosmic covenant and the pleroma”. He calls attention to Melchizedek whom he
calls “a priest of the cosmic covenant”. His sacrifices foreshadowed the sacrificial death of Christ and
are seen therefore as an example of a cosmic liturgy, to be found also in the non-Christian faiths,
including Hinduism. Yet he is careful enough to say, that to enter this pleroma the passage must
necessarily go through the Cross of Christ. Nothing can come to God unless through the Cross of
Christ.

Bibliography

Boyd, Robin. An Introduction to Indian Christian Theology. Delhi: ISPCK, 2004

Chacko, Laji. Introduction to Christian Theologies in India. Kolkata: SCEPTRE, 2014.

Xavier, G.F. Jesus as Purusa-Prajapati. Aluva: S.N. Press, 2006.

Webliography

http://michaelamaladoss.com/swami-abhishiktananda-and-indian-theology/accessed on 05-03-2020

http://latter-rain.com/home/tim/christfulfiller.htm accessed on 05-03-2020